Geoffrey (archbishop of York) - Early Life

Early Life

Geoffrey was probably born in about 1152, before his father Henry, later Henry II of England, married Eleanor of Aquitaine, and was likely named after his paternal grandfather, Geoffrey of Anjou. Although he is often given the surname "Plantagenet" in modern histories, that name was not in use during his lifetime. The date of his birth is determined by statements of Gerald of Wales that he was barely 20 when elected bishop in 1173, and by the fact that he was about 40 when consecrated archbishop in 1191. His mother's identity is unclear. The medieval chronicler Walter Map claimed she was a whore named Ykenai, and that he was not actually Henry's son. This is the only contemporary source that gives her name, and as Map was hostile to Geoffrey, the information must be judged carefully. Instead, Ykenai may have been a daughter of a knight. Another possibility for Geoffrey's mother is Rosamund Clifford, but most of the evidence for this is circumstantial. It is assumed that Geoffrey was the eldest of Henry's children, legitimate or illegitimate.

Geoffrey was brought up with Henry's legitimate children. There is no evidence that Henry tried to deny Geoffrey's paternity, although Walter Map said that Henry's acknowledgment was done "improperly and with little discretion". Geoffrey had a brother named Peter, who appears to have been his maternal half-brother, as Peter is generally considered unlikely to have been Henry's son.

Geoffrey was Archdeacon of Lincoln in the diocese of Lincoln by September 1171, and probably retained that office until he was confirmed as bishop-elect in 1175. He also held a prebend, an income from land owned by a cathedral chapter, in the diocese of London, but there is little evidence that he executed the duties of either office. There are some indications that he studied canon law at a school in Northampton, and that he taught in Paris during the early 1170s. He also acted as a papal judge-delegate at that time. Pope Alexander III initially refused to confirm Geoffrey's selection as Bishop of Lincoln in about May 1173, prompting Geoffrey to travel to Rome in October 1174 to secure confirmation of this office. He was confirmed in the office of bishop by July 1175, but he was not ordained at that time, as he was under the canonical age for holding a bishopric. Geoffrey's youth was one of Alexander's objections to Geoffrey's election, and the pope only confirmed the office under duress. Another potential problem was Geoffrey's illegitimacy, which normally disbarred a person from holding ecclesiastical office, but that was dealt with by the granting of a papal dispensation.

In 1173 and early 1174 Geoffrey fought a military campaign in northern England in support of his father's attempts to subdue the Scots, who were supporting the rebellion by Geoffrey's legitimate half-brothers against their father. The campaign resulted in the capture of William the Lion, the King of Scots, and also helped to compel Hugh du Puiset, the Bishop of Durham, to pledge fealty to Henry II. During the campaign, Geoffrey captured a number of castles held by Roger Mowbray, a supporter of the Scottish king. It was after this campaign that Henry said of Geoffrey "My other sons are the real bastards. ... This is the only one who's proved himself legitimate!" After Geoffrey was confirmed as bishop by Pope Alexander in 1175, the bishop-elect made a ceremonial visit to Lincoln on 1 August 1175. He subsequently went to study at Tours, where he probably befriended Peter of Blois, a medieval poet and diplomat who dedicated a later work on St Wilfrid to Geoffrey. The bishop-elect made a number of gifts to the cathedral at Lincoln, including two bells for the bell tower. While Geoffrey was the bishop-elect at Lincoln, it appears that Adam, Bishop of St Asaph carried out the episcopal duties in the diocese of Lincoln, as Geoffrey had not been consecrated and was unable to perform those functions. Nevertheless he managed to recover some lands of the diocese that had been lost as well as redeeming pawned ecclesiastical items. Although he aided the finances of his diocese with these recoveries, in 1180 he taxed his diocese heavily enough to earn him a rebuke from his father. In 1181 Pope Lucius III became concerned that Geoffrey was never going to be ordained or consecrated, and demanded that the bishop-elect's position be regularised, either through consecration as bishop or through resignation.